I did my best to answer all your Canada questions on twitter. I learned so much from those simple, primitive people and their untamed country.

Whistler is gorgeous. The lake for the race was really nice. The bike course is pretty neat, some serious climbing but no super scary descending and the hills were not super steep.

With the bone bruise on my heel in early June I lost about 3 weeks of running and then it took a couple more weeks of half to one mile runs before it felt normal. My longest runs were three miles. I knew I would not be running the marathon. The only circumstance under which I would finish (by run/jog/shuffle/walking through the marathon) was if enough other guys dropped out so that I was in 8th, the final paying position. This is an odd mindset to have. Mostly I just wanted to practice the swim then riding steady. Every other Ironman I’ve let myself bonk badly and I just wanted to do the ride as easily as possible and practice being smart for once.

That is pretty much how things went. I actually broke the cardinal rule of the swim (don’t get dropped) and got dropped. Actually, whoever I was drafting got dropped and I wasn’t able to bridge back up to the group. It was pretty relaxing cruising the second lap of the swim solo.

I rode about as easy as I could manage. I planned to drop out if I got a flat. I got a flat and dropped out and managed to hitch a ride back to town. Riding in the race vehicles, though depressing as it means you bailed, is interesting because you see just how hard the race staff are hustling all day long to make the course as safe and smooth as possible.

Anyways, Whistler was a great trip though not an ideal event for me. My Norwegian friend Jorgen came over for it and had a great swim and ride but had a couple different problems on the run. He toughed it out and managed to still come in under 11 hours! Thats the viking spirit.

Ken Glah’s Endurance Sports Travel needed a hand for Ironman Boulder so I’m out West again this week. Just drove the bike course with the athletes. Lots of turns and smooth rollers and only a few steep bits or longer climbs. Interested to see how people do on the course. Seems much faster than Ironman Wisconsin but maybe I’m wrong. I’m also interested to see if and how the altitude affects folks. Have a great weekend and good luck to everyone racing Ironman Boulder!